Other winners included Aditya Birla Health Insurance which won the Most Innovative Life / Health Insurance Start-Up; Digital Innovation – Insurers; and Best Use of Social Media & Most Engaging Customer Experience.

Keylane was the winner of the category Digital Innovation International – Technology Firms.

The awards were preceded by the Life Insurance International Innovation Forum themed – “Innovate or Become Extinct”

During the forum, top industry experts that included the likes of Steve Webb, director of Policy & External Communications, Royal London; Eoin Lyons, CEO, Opal; & Andrew Bulley, Partner EMEA Centre for Regulatory Strategy, Deloitte gave their different perspectives on how they see the industry evolving and growing.

To round off a busy, insightful and exciting programme, the closing session looked at the future of life and health insurance and asked pressing questions around different strategies to deal with Brexit; the role of InsurTechs in the market; and the possibility of replacing human doctors with AI and robots.

Ronan McCaughey, editor of Life Insurance International, said: “Any laggards in the global life and health insurance market who fail to fully embrace the digital revolution will quickly find themselves left behind as the market leaders invest in new technology from wearables to Blockchain and Big Data.”

“Technological disruption, the threat of new market entrants and significant regulatory change mean sticking with the status quo is not an option for life and health insurance players worldwide.”

He commented: “The calibre and quality of the submissions for this year’s Life Insurance International Innovation Awards 2017 was extremely high.

“Our award winners have clearly demonstrated innovation in terms of improving their processes, improving the customer experience and embracing a culture that encourages new ideas, radical thinking and openness to change.”

McCaughey added: “The award winners are to be congratulated for accelerating innovation, and embedding the behavioural and cultural changes needed to sustain growth.”

All smiles at the awards evening

The winners of the Life Insurance International Innovation Awards 2017 in full were

Most Innovative Life / Health Insurance Start-Up

Aditya Birla Health Insurance

Digital Innovation – Insurers

Aditya Birla Health Insurance

Digital Innovation UK & Ireland – Technology Firms

Square Health

Digital Innovation International – Technology Firms

Keylane

Most Innovation Health Insurer

Generali Global Health

Most Innovative Life Insurer

Ping An

Best Use of Social Media and Most Engaging Customer Experience

Aditya Birla Health Insurance

Best Business Transformation

OPAL

Personality of the Year

Phil Loney (Royal London Group)

Editors Choice Award

Beagle Street

Editors Choice Award – Most Innovative Reinsurer of the Year

RGA

Long term care needs

During the LII conference, Steve Webb, the UK’s ex-pensions minister, and Royal London’s director of policy and external communications, said the problem of providing financial products for long-term care (LTC) needs is that “no one wants to buy it”.

Webb said insurers should be doing more to make long-term care plans more appealing to consumers.

The difficulty of marketing long-term care products is a problem within the industry. As Webb said at the conference: “People don’t want to see leaflets with wrinkly hands on it.” He said that this is a sign it is being marketed to the wrong generation.

Webb said long-term care products are being targeted to those who are already needing care, or will be in the near future, when it is too late to sign up for an insurance policy. Long-term care products need to be sold to a different generation, those who are currently middle-aged, or younger.

Marketing strategies therefore need to be revamped and modernised to make these products appealing to a younger generation.

The Life Insurance International Innovation Forum and Awards 2018 will be held at the Waldorf Hilton Hotel in London on 7 November 2018. Full details about this year’s event can be found by clicking on the link below.